Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ:TRI) reported third-quarter organic revenue growth of 10%, with its core “Big 3” businesses also growing 10% organically for a second consecutive quarter. Management said results exceeded prior expectations, supported by demand for AI-enabled products, e-invoicing services and legal, tax and compliance offerings.
President and CEO Steve Hasker said the company is raising its full-year outlook to reflect the Global Print transaction. Thomson Reuters now expects total revenue growth of approximately 9.5% and organic revenue growth of 8.5% to 9%, compared with its previous expectation of about 8% for both measures. The company maintained its outlook for Big 3 total and organic revenue growth of 9.5% to 10%.
The company expects an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 39% for 2026. Hasker and CFO Gary Bischoping said the outlook incorporates the presentation of the former Global Print business as discontinued operations; excluding that effect, the margin outlook was unchanged.
Third-Quarter Results and Segment Performance
Third-quarter adjusted EBITDA rose 10% year over year to $651 million, while the adjusted EBITDA margin was 35.5%. Adjusted earnings per share increased 14% to $0.81 from $0.71 a year earlier. Free cash flow declined to $408 million from $526 million, which Bischoping attributed to working-capital changes and higher cash taxes.
Big 3 adjusted EBITDA was $648 million, up 7%, with a 40.3% margin. Reuters adjusted EBITDA was $56 million, representing a 24.3% margin.
- Legal Professionals: Organic revenue rose 9%, led by Westlaw and CoCounsel Legal. Growth in the government business slowed to 4%, while Legal Professionals excluding government grew just under 10%.
- Corporates: Organic revenue increased 10%, with recurring revenue up 8% and transactional revenue up 23%. Pagero, CLEAR, CoCounsel Legal, Indirect Tax and international operations were cited as contributors.
- Tax, Audit and Accounting: Organic revenue growth improved to 10%, with recurring revenue up 10% and transactional revenue up 11%. Latin America, CoCounsel for Tax & Audit, SafeSend and SurePrep contributed to growth.
- Reuters: Organic revenue rose 12%, aided by about $19 million in transactional generative AI content licensing revenue. Excluding transactional AI licensing revenue in both the current and prior-year quarter, Reuters grew 7%.
Bischoping said Corporate transactional revenue was helped by Pagero implementation revenue associated with France’s e-invoicing mandate, which went live Sept. 1. He expects transactional revenue growth to moderate in the fourth quarter but remain healthy by historical standards.
For the fourth quarter, Thomson Reuters expects approximately 8% organic revenue growth and an adjusted EBITDA margin of about 42%. Reuters revenue growth is expected to be roughly flat year over year as the business laps $5 million in prior-year transactional AI licensing revenue, faces tougher comparisons and absorbs the cancellation of an event in the Middle East because of security concerns.
AI Products Drive Engagement and Expansion Plans
Management highlighted increased adoption of AI-enabled offerings. At the end of the third quarter, annualized contract value from GenAI-enabled products represented 34% of ACV, compared with 32% in the prior quarter and 24% a year earlier.
Hasker said the next-generation CoCounsel Legal platform showed stronger customer engagement following its general-availability launch. In September, the first full month after launch, the platform surpassed the prior version’s best month across engagement and retention measures, according to the company. Its active user base increased more than 60% from August, and users completed 2.4 times the work compared with the previous version’s peak.
The company also introduced Westlaw Brief Builder within CoCounsel, designed to help lawyers draft litigation briefs using Westlaw and Practical Law content. The offering initially supported five brief types, and Hasker said coverage would expand to 24 types. Thomson Reuters also launched a multinational CoCounsel Legal profile that incorporates legal content from more than 100 countries and expanded next-generation CoCounsel Legal to the U.K., Canada and Australia.
In Tax, Audit and Accounting, Thomson Reuters recently launched a next-generation agentic CoCounsel platform that can move from source documents and client data to completed work products, including Excel workbooks and memos. Hasker said the product draws on Checkpoint content and integrates with tools including UltraTax.
Management sees AI as an opportunity to expand the company’s addressable market beyond research and information services into more workflow-oriented professional tasks. Hasker described the legal AI opportunity as a potential five- to 10-year expansion of the market, though he said broad adoption will require customer change management and demonstrable returns on investment.
Pagero, Print Transaction and Capital Allocation
Pagero continued to benefit from government-driven e-invoicing requirements. Thomson Reuters added eight countries to Pagero’s coverage year to date and now supports e-invoicing compliance in more than 90 jurisdictions. Hasker said an additional 50 mandates are expected to become effective during the next three years.
The company sold a 51% stake in its Global Print business to KKR on Oct. 1, generating $500 million in proceeds. Bischoping said Westbridge Print will pay Thomson Reuters a royalty equal to 20% of its professional revenue and reimburse certain transition-service costs. Those arrangements are expected to largely offset stranded separation costs after the transaction closes.
Thomson Reuters repurchased $238 million of shares in July, completing its $600 million share repurchase program announced in February. It also issued more than $2 billion of senior notes in September and repaid $1.6 billion of commercial paper borrowings through early October. Leverage stood at one times as of Sept. 30.
Looking toward 2027, executives said they are considering reinvesting some operating leverage into product development, sales resources and other AI-driven growth opportunities. Management said it remains confident that its business model can expand margins over time but may choose to fund initiatives in areas including CoCounsel Legal, tax and accounting automation, transactional compliance, international expansion and tools for corporate legal departments.
About Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ:TRI)
Thomson Reuters is a global provider of information, software and technology solutions for professionals and institutions. The company serves customers in the legal, tax, accounting, audit, corporate, government, risk and compliance sectors, as well as the media industry. Its offerings combine authoritative content with workflow tools, data analytics and artificial intelligence.
Key products and services include Westlaw and Practical Law for legal research and practice management; Checkpoint and ONESOURCE for tax and accounting professionals; Confirmation for audit-related workflows; and CoCounsel, an AI-assisted legal technology platform.
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